Trumpet player Amit Sofer (51) has appeared many times with Mona Rosenblum, Moshe Laufer, Mordechai Ben-David, Shalhevet and other famous musical personalities. However, Sofer has a unique pastime: During the month of Elul he leaves his trumpet, picks up a shofar and proceeds to produce tunes in a haunting manner by using the shofar as a musical instrument.
Sofer has played with many orchestras accompanying him and is probably the only musician who ever played the Shofar live on stage, with an orchestra of 80 players, to the classical Jewish prayer tune Avinu Malkeinu. He plays in national ceremonies, before presidents, ambassadors and consuls, and is even very popular among the huge evangelistic community, “because the Shofar, as far as they are concerned, is much more than just a symbol,” explained Sofer in a Ynet interview.
On top of all that, Sofer claims to own the longest Shofar in the world – 1.74 meters (5’8.5) long – and he is currently in the process of registering it in the Guinness Book of Records.
Sofer has a fixed repertoire, and he plays with the Shofar a wide variety of tunes and styles, ranging from Jewish melodic songs like Avinu Malkeinu and Adon Ha’Selihot, through Israeli songs like Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) and Hava Nagila as well as some songs unrelated to Jewish liturgy.
Since the Shofar is limited in sound, and can produce only some notes of a musical scale, whenever necessary he also co-operates with other musicians, guest players, while on stage. “With their instruments, they play the notes that the Shofar cannot produce,” he explains. In addition, he uses in his performances 3 Shofars, “each Shofar produces a different musical scale, and is being used for a different song,” says Sofer. There are also cases where the Shofar can play an entire song solo.
Sofer has already played in Paris, England, Canada and New York and is now preparing for a concert in Brazil. “The most beautiful and exciting thing for me is that my audience is diverse,” says Sofer.
“It is a blend of Hassidim, orthodox Jews, national religious Jews, secular Jews, and also non-Jews. It is a mixed audience which is united in its love of music and shares the same excitement with the sound of the Shofar. I take familiar songs and make them accessible to everyone; this creates unity in the heart. When I get off stage at the end of a performance and receive a huge embrace from the audience, I know we all won, it is worth it. When people tell me how enthusiastic they felt during the concert, this is what really matters.”
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